through the use of a phonograph, the first crude reproductions of arbitrary sound were able to be made – but not without intrinsic antique glitch. you certainly couldn’t take one out into the field back then (lest you be attacked by ticked off natives). well allot has changed both politically and scientifically across the planet that has in part led to us having much more feasible options when it comes to fulfilling our phonography festishes:
enter the samson zoom h2 – my personal choice for making timeless phonographs in a seemingly modern era. after all a sound artists needs a good field recorder to record sonic fields with!
weighing in at over just a few ounces, this little fellow has treated me well in dozens of recording applications from acting as a soundcard/studio ASIO option on my laptop to an incognito bootlegging device. it’s got a cool option that allows you to plug in a 3rd party stereo 1/8″ external mic (and will power it to boot), and also has a line in feature if you ever want to record yourself during a live performance or to get those magic one take wonder recordings alone in the studio.
it’s got 4 built in condenser mics that work to pick up slight sounds with pretty good accuracy – the noise floor is average but for the price (around $170) you can’t really go wrong. it does the whole lot of mp3 formats as well as up to 96/24 .wav format. it takes SD cards (up to 16 gig i think), and you can use the usb transfer to pass files back and forth (sometimes i use the SD card to store a backup of core live performance audio project files).
my only rants for this device are few compared to the pluses. for one, it has a usb 1.0 chip inside so transfering larger files can take eons – though i just use a separate USB 2.0 SD card reader (got one for $5 on ebay) to speed the process up. the only other drawback i’ve noticed is that when recording uber loud sound sources, such as a drum kit, pass train at close range, or metal clashes real close by the device – the mics can clip out. and the built in compressor/limiter doesn’t seem to do anything to fix the issue (which is why i believe the problem is with the mics themselves). however i’ve always just covered the thing with some cloth until the problem went away (in the case of recording drums), or just moved the device away from the sound source. the mics have never seemed to clip when recording love performances though which is a big plus.
so all in all it might not be the most top level consumer sound recording device on the planet but it’s served me better than a donkey in the sonic desert thus far. if you’re looking for the next step up, i’d recommend an edirol r-09. but after all, nobody (or thing) will ever be perfect – though imperfections in gear(and human nature) can provide some of the most unexpected inspiring results!
Tags: field recorder, phonograph, zoom h2
Using yours is the reason I got one. I recommend it as well – again with that price and the lack of money going around.